Everything Begins in the Home

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For more than a year now I’ve been blogging about the importance of home. And, throughout my articles I have written about home in terms of décor, color and design as well as how to truly live well in your home. I’m grateful for all the readers that have supported me by taking the time to read my posts but my guess is that not everyone reads each and every post. (Ya think?!?) With that in mind, as another year begins in my world of blogging and because today is my birthday and I can do what I want to, I thought I would give you a quick list of my top ten beliefs about home that I think each and every person that dwells in some form of shelter should know.

I’ll make it simple and concise and leave it up to you dear readers to digest each of my top ten things to remember about home and interpret them for yourselves how best they fit your way of life.

My Top Ten

When you decorate your home you decorate your life.

Your home is an outward expression of yourself.

A beautiful home impacts your mood and behavior.

Elements of Nature radiate calming energy when used in your home.

Much like the Russian Nesting Dolls (Matryoshka), your home should be beautiful layer after layer beginning with the streetscape.

The décor of your home should be designed with a sense of “studied indifference” with things arranged in a way as if by mere happenstance.

A beautiful home is not the result of material consumerism.

Creating peace and harmony in your home will create harmony within.

Living Beautifully + Living Peacefully = Living Well.

Everything begins in the home.

My birthday wish today is that each of you have or aspire to have a home filled with peace and harmony!

And one more thing…

Here’s a very special shout-out to my dear twin brother, Craig Balzer. What tremendous joy I have in my life to have been so blessed to share life with you. It’s been a wonderful ride with you ~ from childhood having two cakes on the dining table for our birthday (year after year yours was all chocolate and mine was white with chocolate frosting) to spending Beach Week together with our friends when we graduated from high school to sharing the breakfast table each morning during our college years in our townhouse at VA. Tech (and on occasion watching you literally fall asleep with a spoon of cereal in mid-air from being up all night in the Architectural building) to watching our children grow up together and to now at the awesome age of 56 realize how truly alike we are (as I wrote in my post, Design From An Architect’sView). Without a shadow of a doubt we have a wonderful bond between us. Happy birthday, I love you!

I spent some time the other day with an Architect that I greatly admire. We quickly got into a philosophical discussion on Design. Interested to pick his brain to gain some knowledge of how he views Home Design (his design work is stellar by the way), I asked him an opening question and prepared myself to sit back and listen.

My question was this: “How do you approach designing ahome for someone?” Over an hour later after he finished talking I realized this man had given me more than a wealth of knowledge – he had given me a chance to deeply connect with him in a way that I wasn’t expecting. But, hold that thought while I tell you what he said in answer to my question…

I’ve known this man for many, many years and have followed his work as often as I’ve been able to. I know he excels in several areas of Architecture – Church Design and Residential Home Design being two examples. He’s even designed a Women’s Prison, which I find utterly fascinating having a degree in Criminal Justice myself. I thought I knew this man’s philosophy and I knew his mantra, “Design with Dignity”. But, as I sat there and listened to him it got harder and harder for me to sit and only listen. Everything he said absolutely positively mirrored my own design philosophy. Caught up in an avalanche of emotions with goose bumps erupting up and down my arms and bubbles of laughter wanting to burst forth from my mouth, I found myself impatiently waiting for my turn to talk. Word for word, everything this man said echoed my own design philosophy and I wanted to shout out, “Yes, this is exactly how I approach decorating a home.”

So similar are our styles in our professions and who knew until now? For example, he told me that he never takes notes in the initial meetings with new clients. Ditto. We both keep everything in our heads. And, I understood completely what he meant when he said,

“I listen intently to the client and quickly begin to understand better than the client what he/she is asking for. I leave the meeting with all my notes stored carefully in my head and then go to my drawing board to put onto paper what I see in my head. I give them what they don’t even know to ask for.”

Ditto again.

Then he continued, “My design tells a story. The story is about the person or persons the space is being designed for. In telling the story, the design becomes sensual so that every sense comes alive in the space.”

Now – as a storyteller myself, I got it. And ditto again. When I design and decorate the interior spaces for a client, I, too tell a story about how and what makes this person tick. That’s why I never want any two spaces to look alike. As humans we are much like snowflakes – no two are the same so no two spaces should be the same. Uniqueness – that’s where the beauty is and yep, that’s where the story is!

This man’s next words were more personal as he started telling me about the home he is designing for himself and his wife. He readily admitted to me the agony of doing this, as working for someone else is so much easier. It dawned on him that he needed to approach the project seeing the two of them as “the clients” and so late one night (while his wife was away) he wrote the story of their life together to begin conceptualizing the design. He of course, is an Architect. She is a Master Gardener. Hence, he titled the story, “An Architect and a Gardner”. I asked him if later he would email me the notes he wrote to tell their story. He sent them to me a few days later with a quick note telling me that more than a story, his notes were a poem with phrases weaving together the parts of both of them that would be blended into the design plan. He also sent me a sketch – the original sketch he drew to visually show what his words described.

If I wasn’t already blown away from my conversation with this man, I certainly was after I read his words and reviewed his sketch he emailed me. What a beautiful story I saw in his words – the absolute spot on understanding he had of how to marry their two chosen careers into the design of their home honoring both of them in such an awesome way. Poetic phrases to describe who they are, I hope you enjoy reading a portion of his poem yourself…

An Architect and a Gardener

A Life Together

A Transition In Life Together – A New Home

Sharing The Desire To Live Inside-Live Outside

A House To Live Inside/A Garden To Live Outside

The Site… Offering Wonderful Vistas & Views

Springs, Creeks, Rivers, Lakes

The Residence

A Continuation of Pathways/Entry

A Sense Of “Arrival”

A “Parkway” Setting

A Transition From “Manmade” To “Handmade”

A Transition From The “Required” To The “Desired”

An Active Place Offering A “Canvas” For Continued

Architectural Stories And Gardening – Always

“Works-in-Progress”

An Architect and his twin

I have to tell you something about the conversation I had with this man. You see I shared my mother’s womb with him. Yep, he’s my fraternal twin brother. I’ve known him since the beginning of time – literally. And yet, this unexpected philosophical discussion changed my entire relationship with him. What started out as a question of how he worked turned into a defining moment in both our lives. There we sat, the two of us middle aged and soon turning fifty-six and for the first time we both understood how deeply alike and connected we are. How awesome life is!

If you’re looking for a moral to my story (since there usually is), there’s actually two for you. First, let your home tell your story and let it creatively express your uniqueness in both the structural design as well as the interior design. Second, take the time to really listen and take the time to really talk to the people around you that you care about. Deeper connections are always ready for the taking. I know.

To you Craig…

Please take the time to visit our new website for B&A Interiors by going to www.bainteriors.com. We just launched a new look and I hope you’ll like it! And now that it has launched, I’m back on track writing again for LIPH. I thank each and every one of you that takes the time to read the words that pour from my heart on LIPH. Please keep reading and sharing your comments.

As a decorator I have my own design and décor philosophy that includes some critical components to creating a beautiful sanctuary for my clients to live in. Making what I call “positive impact statements” is part of this philosophy. As I wrote in a recent post, Positive Impact Statements In YourHOME, one way to make a positive impact statement in your home is to artfully display family photographs. Without a doubt displaying family photos is one of the things on my list that can take a home from ordinary to extraordinary. Why you ask? First of all, displaying your family life in this way is unique in that no one else will have the same pictures. Everyone can have accessories from Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn, but your family photos personalize your space. Second, displaying family photos gives your space comfy, cozy warmth regardless of your décor style, as these personal glimpses of family life are art from the heart. Finally, displaying family photographs is what I call “decorating with intention”. In other words, the family pictures are displayed with the specific intention of artfully enhancing your homespace décor.

Like any other form of decorating you do in your homespace, decorating with family photography needs to be well planned and well thought out. Look through your homespace. Pay attention to where you are displaying family photographs and ask yourself these important questions:

Do some of the frames look outdated or badly worn? Unless you are intentionally using antique or “repurposed” frames for your pieces, be aware that outdated and damaged frames will absolutely, positively take away from your artful arrangement of family photos.

Do the frames fit the photographs they hold properly? Though this question might sound silly, you would be amazed at how often I go into homes and immediately notice that family pictures have been put in frames willy-nilly without really taking the time to carefully select the appropriate frame. Remember that decorating (even with family photos) is in the details.

Are you displaying family photos in too many places and spaces? If you truly want your family photos to become a part of your décor, choose very specific places and spaces to display them. Two areas I specifically like are: a focal place such as a hallway wall and a focal space such as a piano, sofa table or bookcase. Remember however my decorating mantra, “less is more” and steer clear of becoming over zealous with places and spaces you display your family photos.

A Wall of Family Life

A glimpse of the Balzer-Solganik family life

My personal favorite way to display family photos is to create what I call a “wall of family life”. Over the years I have enjoyed creating many of these in the homes of friends and clients. Here are some points to ponder if you embark on your own creation:

Consider a theme for your display. My favorite theme is to use all black and white photos with black frames. By keeping to a theme you achieve more than just a way to display family photos. You also create unique art to accent the beauty of your homespace.

Consider arranging the pieces to create a family timeline or story. By doing this, your displaybecomes a conversation piece to return to over and over again.Best of all you can mix and match frames and photo content since the idea is to simply tell the story of your family. My mother did this in our home growing up and believe me, the frames and the photos were a total hodge-podge. But it worked! And with six kids and dozens of grandkids my mother created a look that told a story on the wall of each family as the Balzer Clan grew and grew. Talk about creating a space for walks down Memory Lane! Talk about creating a space for interesting conversations!

Consider the overall look of your arrangement and what you want to express. Carefully consider what you are trying to achieve with the display. Be as conscious of the pictures and the frames you choose as you would be when choosing what knick-knacks get placed where in your homespace. Also, remember your audience that will be seeing your photos and thoughtfully choose which ones you share. (For example, more intimate family photos such as “pregnant belly shots” make beautiful art in more private areas of your home.)

Consider hiring a pro. If you are planning to display a large collection of family photos I highly recommend that you have your display hung professionally. The average John or Jane doesn’t have the knowledge to properly hang a large grouping of frames of varying sizes.

Consider making a trial run of your display. I highly recommend this. Arrange your framed photos on an open space such as the floor so you can visualize what the grouping will look like on the wall.

Consider leaving what I call “room to grow” in your collage of photos. This is particularly important if you have a growing family.

Have fun with this wonderful way to make a positive impact statement in your home. You, your family and all those that get treated to your display will enjoy celebrating your family life, true art from the heart for years to come!